Laurie Boris's Blog, page 34
March 12, 2014
Anticip…
Sometimes I see questions like these in social media groups: “Just sent my book out to an editor / reviewer / contest / publisher…but now what? I can’t STAND waiting!”
My usual glib answer is to suggest the writer find something else to do. Start another project. Pick up one you’ve put aside. Write press releases. Update your website. Beta read for another author. Distract yourself from thinking about whatever is hanging out there. Because sending your stuff out takes TIME. Professionals are doing professional-type things to it, some are being handled by volunteers nice enough to give you their attention and expertise, and it’s going to take however long it’s going to take. So the best thing you can do is get on with your day.
Until I’m the writer waiting, of course. I’ve written three first drafts since November. One is “composting” until I’m ready for the next draft. One is out with beta readers. Another is in that irritating, luffing-in-the-middle stage and I need a little break from it. I have books submitted to three different contests. And a bunch of reviewers. So I whined to a Facebook group about the current state of agitated ennui in my writing life, and the answer was… find something else to do.
Yeah. I’m sensing the irony here. That’s why I’m making a list. I’m including all the things I put off while I was working on two first drafts since November, held captive by a character who kept insisting I listen to Frank Sinatra while I wrote his stories. Maybe I can get around to some of these things now:
Buy Christmas presents.
Dust my penguin collection.
Rinse and return all the Sam Adams bottles that have been accumulating on my bookshelves.
Find a pen that works. Maybe two.
Install the software that my husband gave me for my birthday. In August.
Throw away the empty peanut butter jars in my writing room.
Ditto the Nutella jars.
Stop buying Nutella.
Vacuum.
Get a haircut. (You’re welcome.)
Go through the closet and find the two manuscripts I wrote and only have on floppy disks.
Cut up the three bottle’s worth of seven-year-old solidified Bailey’s Irish Cream and dispense. (Yes, if it sits that long, it becomes a solid.)
Read the seventh Harry Potter book.
File the three-foot-high stack of printouts of old manuscripts that exist on backup media newer than floppy disks.
Write more blog posts so I don’t have to resort to lame lists.
What do you do when you need a distraction?
Cover Reveal for New Story!
I’m really excited about this. My husband designed a nifty cover for my upcoming short novella, The Picture of Cool. What’s it about? I’ll have a synopsis up in the next few days, I hope. I can tell you now that it’s a prequel to Don’t Tell Anyone. And for readers who wanted to hear more from Charlie, well… it’s his story.
March 11, 2014
To Die, To Sleep: a story by Leland Dirks
My friend Leland Dirks posted this story in a book group on Facebook. I was riveted to every word, and as it unfolded, I had to blink away the tears to keep reading. Yet I had to continue. I’m sharing it with you because of the many ways it personally touched me, because of the many people I’ve known who have been on that bridge, and because of the few who did not return.
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To Die, To Sleep
A bitterly cold night in January, 1977. Boulder, Colorado. Home to the best party school in the United States, according to Playboy magazine—and they ought to know. The 1960s had left their mark on the town, which some called the Berkeley of the Rockies. Beautiful girls, handsome guys, so many perfect smiles.
The smiles hid ugly ghosts—rapes, drug overdoses, and abuse. Some of the abuse bruised bodies, some bruised souls. Some of the smiles hid secrets—secrets so terrible that lives could be destroyed. There was a lot of talk about freedom and civil rights and Gay Liberation in the 1970s, but just a whisper of the word “homosexual” could destroy a career and stop a life. What would Mom and Dad say?
Read the rest here. Please share.
March 10, 2014
Saving Drake: A Romance, A Review
Great review. JD Mader’s work is amazing.
Originally posted on R.J. Keith:
Oh Dan, would that I had half of your talent. I would die a happy woman.
Before I begin, those of you who have been around this blog for a while, know my review policy. For those of you who don’t, or who haven’t been around long enough, the short and sweet is; I will never give a book or movie five stars. It defeats the purpose of a review. How annoying is it to go into Amazon and see a five star review consisting of OH MY GOD THIS THING IS AWESOME (insert your own choice of spelling here). Conversely, one star reviews amount to the same thing. So, my rating system ranges from 1.5 to 4.5 with 4.5 being the highest I will ever give something.
And now you know.
March 2, 2014
Readers’ Choice Awards: The Voting Starts Now
Click on the shiny badge to take you to the voting page. It’s SO easy!
Some of you may know this already, but among the world of indie authors, getting a review from BigAl’s Books and Pals is no small accomplishment. According to statistics released by the site, “In the twelve months ending February 28th, 2014, BigAl and the Pals will have received over 1,400 books to consider for review and published 368 book reviews.”
I’m wicked excited that one of those titles was mine: Sliding Past Vertical has been selected as one of the books they felt stood out as an exceptional example of indie writing. (Their words, not mine, and they’re enough to make a girl mix up a pitcher of virtual margaritas and dance. No, not on the pole. Not since the last time.)
Anyway…B&P divided these books into thirteen categories. Sliding Past Vertical has been nominated for Contemporary/General Fiction. Starting now, you can vote for your favorites in each category. If you think the book is worthy, I hope you’ll swing by and give me your vote; I’d appreciate your support. Thank you! Voting enters you into a drawing for some cool prizes, and I hope you win!
Voting automatically enters you into B&P’s giveaway. You can learn all about that here. Voting ends at midnight, March 12, and final results will be announced the morning of Wednesday, March 15. Winners get a shiner badge and some cool exposure on the B&P website. Exposure (not the kind when you’re swinging around on the pole) for indie authors is a really good thing.
Some of my friends and colleagues have also been nominated. Lynne Cantwell’s Tapped, the third book in the Pipe Woman Chronicles, has been nominated in the Fantasy category.
Bad Book, a wickedly funny combo-genre novel written by Stephen Hise, KS Brooks, and JD Mader, has been nominated in the Humor category.
Julie Frayn has been nominated in the Women’s Fiction category for her novel, It Isn’t Cheating if He’s Dead.
Nicole Storey has also been nominated in the Fantasy category for Blind Sight, the first book of her Celadon Circle series.
DV Berkom’s wild ride, Yucatan Dead, sixth book in the Kate Jones series, was nominated in the Thrillers category.
Good luck to all the nominees and remember that if you vote, you can win!
[Voting notes: The form doesn't like Internet Explorer. Once you click on this link that takes you to the site, log in with Facebook or your email address. Click on the downward-facing arrow in each category to see the books nominated. Click the open circle to the left to make your selection and "Enter" to register the vote. Clicking on the title will give you more info about the book.]
February 26, 2014
On Losing a Friend
Fran was usually the first person I’d see after checking in at the YMCA’s front desk. She kept the place clean, especially the ladies’ locker room, but she did so much more than push a mop or a cleaning rag. She was the finder of lost things, the smile and joke I needed after a bad day, the shoulder to cry on after a really bad day. I went through a rough patch about nine years ago when I hurt my back and slipped into clinical depression and a major fibromyalgia flare. I knew I needed exercise; it had always helped me before. My physical therapist advised a return to activity, that I should get out and see people. But simply leaving my house seemed like a monumental task. I tired just thinking about walking across the parking lot, changing into a bathing suit, changing afterward.
Fran not only took care of me when I was there, she took care of all of us, like the self-appointed den mother to the ladies of the YMCA. She fastened the straps of my suit when I didn’t have enough flexibility to reach them. She listened and hugged me while I poured out my frustrations, from losing my job to having to learn how to walk again. When I passed out from a combination of a too-hot shower, a new medication, and the twenty pounds I lost while I was ill, Fran was the first one there with a cold cloth for my forehead.
She had been one of the few to notice my improvement. “I see you getting better,” she said. “I see you making eye contact and stuff. That’s a good sign, right there.”
One day when I came into the locker room, well after my recovery, Fran turned from what she was doing and flashed me a broad smile that showed the missing teeth on the right side. “I got somethin’ for you, chick-chick,” she said. She called all the women “chick-chick” or “chickie.” Then she gave me a pair of flip-flops she bought for a dollar at the mall, because she saw I didn’t have any.
I was heartbroken when the Y let her go last year in favor of an outside cleaning service. The place was never the same: the warmth, the chickies, and the Fran-ness were gone. It certainly isn’t any cleaner, either. Fran’s chicks were angry that the Y had done her dirty, and we were worried for her, that without purpose, without feeling needed, her health, already not the greatest, would fail.
And as we’d feared, it happened. We still don’t know the exact cause of her sudden death, but just a look passed among the ladies in the locker room spoke volumes: her heart had been broken, too.
The last time I saw Fran was at a potluck supper our aqua-jogging instructor hosted in her honor. It was a beautiful day and we were laughing, drinking sangria, and making jokes that we barely recognized each other with our clothes on. She always laughed the loudest. That’s what I want to remember about our chick-chick.
Fiction author Laurie Boris answers the Dames Dozen
I’m hanging with the lovely Dames of Dialogue today. Come by and we’ll talk about coffee and books and writing and stuff.
Originally posted on Dames of Dialogue:
The Dames are pleased to welcome back fiction author Laurie Boris. Hi, Laurie! Tell us about your latest book, Sliding Past Vertical.
Sliding Past Vertical is not a typical love story. Sarah, a graphic artist, has made a few mistakes…okay, a bunch of them. Her life in Boston has not turned out the way she planned and everything is going wrong, including her codependent relationship with a charming-but-kinda-sleazy guitar player. Fortunately, her old boyfriend Emerson (no stranger to codependent relationships himself) is just a phone call away to help her clean up the mess. When her current mess is too big to handle, she decides she needs a radical change. This move puts her back in the same college town where Emerson still lives. And much too close for everyone’s comfort.
Sounds great! Can you share a little bit about what you’re working on now or what’s coming next?
February 19, 2014
How to Help a Writer
Carol Wyer talks about questions she often gets from beginning writers…and mentions a couple of people I know!
Originally posted on Facing 50 with humour.:
I believe in paying it forward. I’ve been unbelievably lucky with my writing and blogging and have met some truly wonderful people who’ve helped me in so many ways.
I’m more than happy to assist any budding writer in their quest to become published. I get asked regularly at talks or via email about all sorts of issues to do with writing and often I send people to website Indies Unlimited where there is a huge amount of information for anyone wanting to get published or indeed is already published and wants helps to promote books wise up on social media and so on.
However, some questions need a lengthier response so here are the top three questions I invariably get asked:
1) Should I have an author website?
February 16, 2014
Sliding Past Vertical Entered in Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards!
Hi, folks!
I just entered Sliding Past Vertical into the 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards contest, and blatantly stealing paying homage to a brilliant idea by author Charles Ray, I’d love to share a preview of my entry here.
I’m always open to feedback if you’d like to provide it.
Good luck to my author friends who have or will be entering. You have until March 2 or until they reach their quota or we break the website, one or the other. Have a great day!
February 15, 2014
Top 5 Ways to Beat Crazy-Writer Syndrome
Why, just the other day I was having the most inspired conversation with one of my stuffed penguins when…yes. I can completely relate to DV Berkom’s blog about CWS. And you should have been a fly on the wall when I asked a local police detective the street value of a baseball-sized bag of cocaine. Because I’m a writer and I need to know these things, okay? (It helps if you smile sweetly and have gray hair.)
Originally posted on DV Berkom Books:
I’ve been writing full-time for a while now, and I seem to have fallen into a comfortable routine of home days (two days during the week where I do nothing but stay home and write) and away days, or days that I have other stuff I have to do that takes me away from a full day of writing. I’m still able to make my word count (usually) on those days, but I also get to go out into the real world and pretend I have a life.
At first I looked forward to those two home days, mentally rubbing my hands together in gleeful anticipation of a long, unhurried stretch of time to spend with my work in progress. Uninterrupted hours in which to concentrate on putting words to page, staring out the window and planning the next scene, completely immersing myself in the world of my characters and blowing stuff up with wild abandon.
Um, yeah. Not so much. Funny thing about spending that much time alone. You get a little whacked.
